1st Edition

EU Social Policy in the 1990s Towards a Corporatist Policy Community

By Gerda Falkner Copyright 1998

    This book offers an analytical overview of schools of thought on European integration which offer useful insights into EU social politics. Building on this framework, the chapters then examine in detail pre-Maastricht social policy and the 'social partners', the innovations of the Treaty itself, and where EU social policy stands at the end of the 1990s. Case studies of European Works Councils, parental leave, and atypical work, are included to highlight the day-to-day processes at work in social policy formation and the major interest groups and EU institutions involved. This is an up-to-date and accessible study which finds the social policy-making environment in the EU has become increasingly corporatist in the 1990s.

    Introductory Overview 1. Political Theory and EU Politics 2. Social Policy from Messina to Maastricht 3. Social Policy in the Maastricht Treaty 4. Policy-making under Social Protocol 5. The Evolution of Social Interest in Intermediation 6. Conclusions and Outlook

    Biography

    Associate Professor at the Institute for Government and Political Science, University of Vienna.

    'Gerda Falkner has convincingly synthesized approaches to European integration and to the study of interest groups and policy making. She also provides a succinct overview of the development of Community social policy - Michael J. Gorges, Journal of European Social Policy 10(2) 2000